


Downgrade

by citiesAlight



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Character Study, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 04:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16866301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citiesAlight/pseuds/citiesAlight
Summary: John was always Dave's best bro.Until he wasn't, now just a close friend he'd had as a kid. A time only a few years ago, but felt like a lifetime.





	Downgrade

**Author's Note:**

> Found this sitting in my Tumblr drafts after what’d been years; this probably was written back before the Gigapause or right as it started. I didn’t even know this existed, and I have no idea where it was going, but take it anyway
> 
> Behold, my writing from before a long, long time ago

To Dave, John had always been his best bro. They would joke around, John would put up with his ramblings and raps and he would, in turn, deal with John being a general asshole, even dealing him with pulling pranks on him. They would complain about their guardians to each other, although Dave knew he could never fully understand John’s situation nor John his.

John’s dad was overbearing for sure, always there when John needed him as well as when he didn’t, but he seemed really sincere when he told John he loved him and that he was proud of him. And John did enjoy pulling pranks on his father although it often backfired, leaving John embarrassed and usually humiliated.

But with Dave, Bro was just never… there. He was around most of the time, just not where Dave could see him. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought a poltergeist or some shit was haunting him with how stuff would always move around and doors would open and slam shut and lights would turn on and off, all the while Dave would only see a shadow on occasion moving throughout the house, a blur that his eyes could barely follow.

But even though he barely saw the fucker, Dave always got the feeling that Bro was watching him, keeping tabs on what he did, scaring the shit out of him when he got the chance. And when he wasn’t being a creepy, puppet-obsessed, invisible asshole, he was dragging him into strifes, knocking him down only to drag him back up, rinse and repeat.

It made him stronger, physically, but he was paranoid that he’d get dragged into another strife at any moment without warning. He hated fighting, he hated the sound of metal on metal, and he hated how, no matter how hard he tried, he just wasn’t good enough to beat him, to win. He was still weak and he hated it.

His only solace was that Bro generally left him alone when he was messaging his friends; he still felt like he was being watched, but at least he wouldn’t randomly be dragged into strifes at the drop of a dime.

Maybe, just maybe, Bro would leave him alone long enough so he could play a game with his friends in peace.

* * *

Dave had been on the meteor for a while now—1 year, 48 days, 7 hours, 29 minutes, 40, 41, 42, 43—and he had done his best to push thoughts of his life before the game out of his mind; not the ones about his friends and conversations they had and jokes they shared, but rather about his home life and the (few) plans he had for the future and even his hobbies.

Dwelling on his old life—before he was a semi-immortal god, before he had to worry about stable timelines, before one of his top priorities was keeping himself and his friends from getting killed, before that fateful day he decided to play a game that ripped him from the world he knew and threw him into a world of war and survival and magic and powers and blood and fighting and dying and reviving, before the rug was ripped out from under him—always caused a pain to make itself known in his chest.

Almost everyone he knew—his neighbors, the people at the Chinese restaurant, anyone he ever saw or talked to, even the random strangers he saw on the street—were all dead. He was one of four remaining humans from his world, two of which were so, so far away. No word, no contact (they could be dead for all Dave knew, although, with Rose’s reassurance that they were completely  _fine_ , he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind whenever it reared its ugly head), just the hope that they were both safe and sound, and the wish that, one day, they’d get to meet up in a dreambubble instead of having to wait for the three years to pass—1 year, 10 months, 2 days, 16 hours, 26 mins, 41, 40, 39, 38, 37…

He had to stop thinking about it. With the habit he’d formed of talking to himself, it would only be a matter of time before someone learned that he couldn’t get over that his world was gone and that he was counting down the seconds until the three years were up and he’d get to see his bros again. Jade Harley and John Egbert, names now mainly mentioned in passing as they both faded from the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Even Dave himself had forgotten about the two ectosiblings; they were still there in the back of his mind but sometimes he’d just… forget they ever existed. Of course, he’d then feel like absolute shit for forgetting some of the best friends he’d ever had, but Rose assured him that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for him to do, and that instead it was probably good for him to move on and not dwell on it as much.

Even Karkat and the Mayor agreed with her and, well, he couldn’t argue with the mayor.

* * *

He’s not sure when it happened, but he finally allowed all thoughts of Jade and John slip from his mind and didn’t bring them front and center whenever he thought of them in passing. They were just two close friends he’d had as a kid, simple as that.

And, as time wore on, he stopped thinking of them all together and they slowly faded away. Eventually, even the countdown stopped ticking away in his head. He had moved on.

 

**Author's Note:**

> That’s it. I left it untouched ‘cause it doesn’t feel right to change it after over 4 years. Wish I’d finished it though ‘cause I love it
> 
> I prefer this style so much more than what I have now. It has *voice*, something I lost over the years


End file.
